I've had 3, a Marlin 45-70, a Winchester 30-30, and a Winchester 94 in .356 Win. I shot deer and elk with the 45-70 with handloads, deer with the 30-30, and so far, nothing with the .356. The 45-70 needs to be handloaded to get decent velocities since the factory loads were developed to be safe in the old trap door springfields. The newer .450 Marlin improves on that I think. I shot a deer with that gun with the 300 grain bullet at 175 yards but it was holdover and guess. I hit him right but it was lucky. The guns that hang around 2000 to 2100 fps seem to be good for around 120-130 yards or so before you have to start making big adjustments for trajectory. My .356 pushes up to around 2500 fps, as does the .358 with a 200 grain bullet which really does get you out to the 200 yard range with much less holdover. The new hornady lever action rounds have a spire point bullet that works in tubular magazines and that's a big improvement too. I'm really interested in that .338 Marlin round though because it has even more to offer in terms of velocity and effective range. Lever guns are way too cool. I sold a bunch of rifles a while back but had to keep my model 94.
